Reflection
by Moonlit-Jeannie
Summary: She tried to imagine that she had her mom’s hair, her dad’s smile, and that both of them were standing next to her. [written for Vengeful for flashfic]


**Written for Vengeful who requested: "Someone's reaction to finding out about Dasey. They can be in an established relationship, initial, secret, whatever. It can even be a future fic. Just someone finding out. Fluff or humour, mostly, with some angst/drama on the person's part.**

**I know that this is nothing like you were expecting, and I apologize in advance for the extra angst/drama that goes on. There are snippets of humour in here, though, and hopefully the sappiness (there is a lot of that) will count as fluff. I hope that you don't hate it, even though I wouldn't blame you. haha.**

**Disclaimer: Do not own anything in this fic except for Bailey.**

Bailey McDonald-Venturi, aged eight, looked from the television to her grandpa and back to the television. He was asleep. Now, if she could only change the channel from the dumb Disney movie about one talking animal or another to the hockey game her life would be complete.

Her hand stretched for the remote that rested on his left leg, but just as she reached it, he let out a moan and shifted in his sleep. She quickly removed her hand and placed it back in her lap before casting a nervous glance toward her grandpa. He was still asleep.

She bit her lip, nervous about if she should do what she was about to do, but carefully stood up from the couch anyway. Her grandma was away at work and her grandpa somehow had gotten the day off and thought they should bond over watching numerous Disney movies.

Bambi had been first, and seriously, she knew that she was supposed to feel bad for the little deer about his mom and all, but he was annoying. She thought the only cool animal in the whole movie was Thumper, but even he had his occasionally stupid moment.

Then, they had started to watch Alice in Wonderland, but almost halfway through the movie Grandpa George had insisted that it didn't seem like something the eight year old should be watching and popped the disc out and put it back in its case.

Now Fantasia was in and Bailey really could see why her grandfather had fallen asleep so quickly. Classical music could do that to you. Especially with all the weird blobs dancing across the screen. At one point, she had thought he may have been hypnotized, but that thought left her mind once he had started to snore.

Bailey looked around the room once more to make sure no one was watching and ran upstairs to the room that she knew used to be her dad's room. The door creaked when she pushed it open and once inside she looked in wonder at all of the trophies and plaques that were now covered in dust.

She walked over to a dresser and stood on tiptoe to reach one of the trophies. She pulled it down with both hands and sat down on the floor to look at it.

"Derek Venturi," she read aloud, "most valuable player--2004."

Bailey replaced the trophy and walked over to the closet. There had to be pictures somewhere. She knew there had to be.

When Bailey opened the closet, she didn't find pictures, but she was accosted by a musky scent. One of mothballs, cologne, and sweat. And although the latter two scents had faded with time and were overpowered by the odor of mothballs, she could still smell them.

She rummaged through the items in the closet. She found shirts, jackets, and hoodies that probably had not been worn for ten years before she pulled down the last thing that hung from the closet. An old leather jacket.

She slipped it on and laughed when it almost reached the floor. She turned around and looked directly into the mirror before she ran her fingers through her chestnut locks.

She wondered if she looked like her dad. If she acted like her mom. All she knew was that she had a passion for hockey and she had gotten that from her dad. And she only knew that because her uncle Edwin had let it slip one day, only to be not-so-subtly elbowed by his father.

No one talked about them and she didn't know why. She didn't know why she wasn't allowed in the room she was in now. She didn't know why she wasn't allowed to see pictures of them. She wanted to know her parents.

Bailey widened her already large blue eyes and scrunched up her pug nose. She tried to imagine that she had her mom's hair, her dad's smile, and that both of them were standing next to her.

She closed her eyes tightly and tried hard to imagine them there, talking to her. Her dad talking about hockey and her mom exclaiming over how pretty she was, but nothing came.

The door creaked loudly and someone cleared their throat.

"Bailey, what are you doing in here?"

Bailey turned around and clutched the jacket around her more tightly as if it were her life source.

"Oh, Aunt Marti. It's just you."

Marti pouted, "That hurts. What do you mean it's just me?"

The two girls had grown up together, ten years apart and even though Bailey had always called her "Aunt" Marti, they were more like sisters.

"You won't tell anyone, will you? That I was in here?" Bailey asked nervously.

"Of course not. I'm actually surprised that you didn't come in here sooner. I come in here all the time… to talk to Smerek."

She got a faraway look in here eyes and Bailey stared at her curiously before she walked over and sat on the bed.

"Smerek?" Bailey asked her aunt with raised eyebrows.

Marti laughed softly and walked over to stand next to the bed.

"You have a lot to learn, kid. Hop on," she said and bent down for the girl to get on her back.

She paused for a moment once she felt the weight of her niece on her back, but held back the tears that she felt would come at the all too familiar gesture. How many times had Derek done the same thing for Marti when she was Bailey's age? She had lost count after one hundred.

Marti somehow managed to close the door to Derek's room without it making any noise.

"Um, Aunt Marti?" Bailey hesitantly asked her aunt once they were out of the hallway and in Marti's room with the door closed.

"What is it, kiddo?"

Marti was on her hands and knees in the floor trying to wriggle something out from under her bed.

"Should I put the jacket back?"

Marti sat up and turned around to face her niece who was holding her arms down to her sides, the sleeves hiding her arms completely.

Marti pursed her lip and shook her head.

"Don't put it back. You can keep it. If you want, you can keep it in here and I'll give it back to you when you're bigger."

"In where?"

Marti once again got on her hands and knees and went back to the task at hand. Finally, a large plastic box slid swiftly from underneath her bed.

"In here," she replied and opened the box.

Inside were envelopes full of pictures, cards, and more.

Bailey's eyes widened and she stared in wonder at the contents of the box.

"What is all that stuff?"

Marti smiled a small smile.

"What's left of Smerek and Casey. So you really want to know about your mom and dad?"

Bailey nodded eagerly and jumped onto Marti's bed.

"Yes!" she exclaimed.

"Okay…" Marti drawled. "Well, before we start, I just want to let you know that it may get confusing for you and that also, I don't have as many memories as I would like about them because I was only eight when they left."

Bailey nodded and patted the space on the bed next to her, "Okay then. Sit, sit! What are we waiting for?"

Marti shook her head in amusement, but grabbed the first envelope of pictures and climbed into the bed with Bailey.

"Okay, well, I guess the story starts about a year after my mom and dad got divorced. I was five and my dad had just started dating someone new. Your grandma Nora. We met Nora a few times, but not much really before we found out that Dad was getting married to her. We met her kids at the wedding. Two girls, Casey and Lizzie. You of course know Lizzie, but Casey… well, Casey was Derek's age and from the beginning it was nothing but arguments between the two of them. Derek probably felt threatened that he was no longer the oldest by such a large margin anymore… now he was only the oldest by about four months.

"They argued over little things, Derek's room, Casey being such a klutz, who got to watch TV when… it was all really amusing really. Especially for me, a six year old that they were acting like just about. Casey dated Sam, Derek's best friend… she dated Max, the anti-Derek and Derek dated Kendra for a little over a month. Once Max and Casey broke up it was only a few months, maybe five or six, until I went into Derek's room one night to ask him for a bedtime story because he'd forgotten to come tuck me in. I found both of them in his room, er, kissing and not long after that came the fallout."

Marti looked over at Bailey who was wide-eyed and flipping through the pictures of the family during the happy times.

"The fallout?" Bailey questioned and tilted her head to the side. "What do you mean?"

"Derek and Casey were about four months into their relationship, well, their relationship as far as Lizzie, Edwin, and I knew it when Dad and Nora found out. Derek and Casey were seventeen now and had just started their senior year, so they didn't have much left of high school before they could go off to college, but that didn't matter to Dad and Nora. They told them that while they were living under their roof they lived by their rules and that meant they couldn't be together."

Marti smirked, "Of course that didn't mean anything to Derek. He pretty much lived by his own rules and didn't listen to what anyone had to say. Except for Casey, of course, but that all pretty much went in one ear and out the other. Pink envelope, please."

Bailey furrowed her eyebrows before she lay over the side of the bed and pulled the pink envelope out of the box.

"Wow, when did you get organized, Aunt Marti?"

Marti laughed, "I am so not organized. Your mom was, though. I try to keep things the way she had them, you know?"

Marti took the envelope from Bailey and pulled out the stack of pictures that were inside.

"This is when you enter the story. Well, sort of. Here, you can look at this now."

Bailey squinted at the picture and turned it between her fingers in a circle.

"What is it?" she asked with her nose scrunched up.

"It's you silly," Marti laughed. "About another four months after Nora and Dad found out about them, they found out that Casey was going to have a baby… you."

"I really don't think that's me," Bailey disagreed and handed the ultrasound picture back to Marti.

"Okay," Marti sighed. "You got me. I was lying. It's not really you it's a picture of Hurricane Bailey from a few years ago."

Bailey rolled her eyes , "You expect me to believe that story? I'm eight!"

"Yes, you are. Okay, fine. Let's just finish the story, okay?"

Marti put the pictures back in the envelope and pulled a large framed picture out of the box. In the picture, a smiling Derek held a small baby in a hospital blanket next to a smiling, albeit glistening, Casey in a hospital bed.

"This is you with your mom and dad."

"Now that I believe."

Bailey reached out her hands and took the picture from Marti.

"They look happy."

"They were," Marti smiled. "They were really happy. They were really happy for a long time after you were born. They were living on their own, after being kicked out of the house of course, and they had their baby. You. Casey took online classes until you were old enough to be in daycare and she could go to classes and Derek got a few jobs to support you guys, but they were happy. Right before you turned two, though, they found out that they were going to have another baby. This one was going to be a little boy. Lizzie and Edwin would take me with them sometimes to visit you guys, but Dad and Nora still wouldn't visit. I remember Casey would say that you were as excited to be a big sister as a baby could be. They really, really loved you."

Marti's face started to once again take on the far away look.

"I know that look," Bailey spoke up. "This is where it gets bad, isn't it?"

Marti looked over at Bailey and gave her a small, sad smile.

"Yeah, if you don't want to hear the rest… you don't have to."

Bailey shook her head.

"I want to hear the rest of it."

Marti turned around and crossed her legs, taking Bailey's hands in her own.

"One morning after they dropped you off at daycare they had to go to a doctor's appointment and it was raining really hard. There was a car that was speeding and it hydroplaned, um, spun into your mom and dad's lane and both cars ended up exploding. I'm not sure how, like I said, I was just ten, but I think that maybe the oil from the roads had something to do with it. It was really bad and afterwards, Dad and Nora felt awful about not being there for them when they were still alive and not really being apart of your life, so they took you in and the rest of the story, you know."

"Yeah, I know the rest. Do you think they'll ever tell me about my mom and dad, Aunt Marti?"

Marti shook her head, "Honestly, I don't know. I'll try talking to them if you want, but I'm not sure if that'll work."

"Can I have this picture?" Bailey asked and once again picked up the picture of Derek, Casey, and Baby Bailey.

"Not yet," Marti told her, "but anytime you want to look at that picture or any of the others, you can come in here and look at them. Okay?"

"Okay! Thank you, Aunt Marti."

"Aw, you're welcome, kiddo."

Marti leaned over and hugged Bailey before Bailey jumped off of the bed and ran to the bathroom.

Once in the bathroom, Bailey locked the door and scooted her stool over in front of the sink.

She closed her eyes and imagined her mom and dad standing beside her. She opened her eyes and saw.

Bailey had her dad's hair, her mom's eyes, her dad's nose, and her mom's smile.

But most of all, she knew that she once and would always have their love.


End file.
